General Remarks on Flexibility in Employment as the Determinant for Prolonging Working Life of Older People

Abstract

This article examines the flexibility of employment in terms of its ability to extend the working life of older adults and as an important subject in the ongoing debate on the ways of mitigating the challenges faced by aging societies. It also raises the question about what legal measures and the manner of achieving this goal. The debate on demographic changes is accompanied by discussions on atypical and new forms of employment that also seek to solutions to make the labour market more flexible and inclusive. Noticeably, the non-standard forms of employment have different implications for working conditions and the labour market. Whether and if so—in what scope—they may become the main mean in the framework of inclusive labour market policy for older people. The flexibility in employment is differently understood. From the workers’ perspective, it is working conditions changing over their lifetime to ensure the sustainability of employment. This aim requires appropriate guaranties for older workers, especially of working conditions being adjusted to worker’s age. This calls for national legislators to ponder over the interests of all parties (the state, employers, and older workers) in building the legal framework for sustainable work conceptualisation.